@BlogKCLast year’s effort by Wal-Mart to build a super center on the site of the struggling Mission Center Mall caused quite an uproar and ultimately led to new regulations favoring mixed-use redevelopment in Mission. Now it seems that the city was prudent to hold out for a better plan. While Wal-Mart would have spent about $40 million, a different developer is proposing a $250 million redevelopment. A project of this magnitude would be a big boost to Northeastern Johnson County and help offset problems like blight and shrinking schools that are common in older suburbs.
What’s On KC- Freedom Sisters with APC
- Stitches Exhibit
- UMKC Theatre and KCAT present Billy Bishop Goes to War
- 10th Annual Paul D. Bartlett Lecture
- Student Union Coffeehouse Series
- Docent Training Classes
- Know your status? Free HIV/STI Testing
- Stitches Exhibit
- Wind Ensemble and 11 O'Clock Jazz Band
- UMKC Theatre and KCAT present Billy Bishop Goes to War
aha – another “Wal-Mart is evil” blog post.
Well, we’ll see how this one turns but it is still only a proposed plan. I prefer cash in the bank, myself.
If only someone in Blue Springs would propose something. Oh, and complete it. That would be nice as well.
The killed the Mission ‘mall’ by not putting a theater there. That place has been limping along since it opened. I grew up in Mission and the old Macy’s complex was not much different than the ‘mall’ in terms of shopping excitment. My favorite tenant had to be the Pop Shoppe. that place was magical to an 8 year old.
http://www.pww.on.ca/shoppe.htm
Mike – Walmart is cash in the bank, but only as long as they decide to stay in the city. Of course normally they only stay as long as they have development incentives, then flee to an unincorporated area. Just ask Blue Springs about that one (they did stay longer in Blue Springs than I thought). And yes, Blue Springs’ main corridors appear to be dying, especially 7 Highway. The City needs a serious planning effort to start turning things around.
Yup, Wal-Mart is onto it’s third Blue Springs location in 10 years. The first one on 7 sat empty for several years. The latest move leaves three corners of 40 and 7 Hwys with empty big box stores. It also creates a whole new strip mall district on Adams Dairy Parkway on the fringe of the city, while the retail core on 7 Hwy continues to slide into blight.
However, Wal-Mart isn’t really to blame here. The city government is making the planning and zoning mistakes that lead to the city’s current problems. And the businesses on 7 freaked out when the city did make an attempt to redevelop the corridor.
What’s interesting is that Blue Springs has two perfect examples of bad planning just down the highway. In Independence both Noland Road and most of 40 Hwy have become badly blighted as the city built new retail districts without taking care of its existing neighborhoods. Now Noland is in such bad shape that redevelopers can’t get any tenants, even with huge tax breaks to offer. So far Blue Springs isn’t learning any lessons from Independence’s mistakes.
I am certainly not giving the City of Blue Springs a pass, because obviously there is clearly a lack of planning and vision there, but is anyone really surprised that Wal-Mart keeps moving (and further out, as BlogKC points out)? This is typical Wal-Mart behavior. The stores on 7 Highway were always bustling with activity, so it wasn’t an economic issue in that sense. Does anyone know what kind of a tax deal they received for moving to Adams Dairy?
People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.
Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the industry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.
The coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to this::Sam Walton’s WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.